We compiled this from numerous surveys and polls on the internet, some all critics, some all fans, so it's a combination. This represents over 1000 individual polls. We simply put them all into a worksheet, assigned the values per listing in typical countdown fashion, then added them all up when done. This actually represents hundreds of thousands of individual voters, none of whom was me. You could say this is "the Godfather of all internet film lists"..

[Lately there are some new polls I can add, such as The Auteurs at Criterion, with over 100,000 members; 2001 is #1 there, followed by another Kubrick film, A Clockwork Orange. Look for this list to be updated in the future with some newer polls added in; it's possible that 2001 will be #1 in the future, but unlikely, as The Godfather tops more individual polls. Citizen Kane and Gone With the Wind are falling over time, while City of God, Memento, and 12 Angry Men are rising]

Godfather, The (1972) - Coppola, Francis

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) - Kubrick, Stanley

Chinatown (1974) - Polanski, Roman

Star Wars (1978) - Lucas, George

Citizen Kane (1941) - Welles, Orson

Vertigo (1958) - Hitchcock, Alfred

Seven Samurai, The (1954) - Kurosawa, Akira

Psycho (1960) - Hitchcock, Alfred

Godfather: Part II, The (1974) - Coppola, Francis

It's a Wonderful Life (1946) - Capra, Frank

M (1931) - Lang, Fritz

Taxi Driver (1976) - Scorsese, Martin

Blade Runner (1982) - Scott, Ridley

Sunset Boulevard (1950) - Wilder, Billy

Third Man, The (1948) - Reed, Carol

Bicycle Thief, The (1949) - De Sica, Vittorio

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) -Kubrick, Stanley

Wizard of Oz, The (1939) - Fleming, Victor

North by Northwest (1959) - Hitchcock, Alfred

Pulp Fiction (1995) - Tarantino, Quentin

City Lights (1931) - Chaplin, Charles

Rashomon (1950) - Kurosawa, Akira

Metropolis (1927) - Lang, Fritz

Raging Bull (2000) - Scorsese, Martin

Apocalypse Now (1979) - Coppola, Francis

Singin' in the Rain (1952) - Donen, Stanley/Gene Kelly

Schindler's List (1993) - Spielberg, Steven

General, The (1927) - Keaton, Buster/Clyde Bruckman

Seventh Seal, The (1956) - Bergman, Ingmar

Touch of Evil (1958) - Welles, Orson

Goodfellas (1990) - Scorsese, Martin

Pather Panchali / Apu Trilogy I (1955) - Ray, Satyajit

All About Eve (1950) - Mankiewicz, Joseph L.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) - Spielberg, Steven

Night of The Hunter, The (1955) - Laughton, Charles

Modern Times (1936) - Chaplin, Charles

8½ (1963) - Fellini, Federico

Sunrise (1928) - Murnau, F.W.

Gold Rush, The (1925) - Chaplin, Charles

King Kong (1933) - Cooper, Merian C./Ernest B. Schoedsack

Duck Soup (1933) - McCarey, Leo

Notorious (1946) - Hitchcock, Alfred

Manchurian Candidate, The (1962) - Frankenheimer, John

Rules of the Game, The (1939) - Renoir, Jean

L.A. Confidential (1997) - Hanson, Curtis

Searchers, The (1956) - Ford, John

Casablanca (1942) - Curtiz, Michael

Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922) - Murnau, F.W.

L'Atalante (1934) - Vigo, Jean

Lawrence of Arabia (1962) - Lean, David

Passion of Joan of Arc, The (1928) - Dreyer, Carl Theodor

Rear Window (1954) - Hitchcock, Alfred

Umberto D (1952) - De Sica, Vittorio

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) - Forman, Milos

Some Like it Hot (1959) - Wilder, Billy

Double Indemnity (1944) - Wilder, Billy

Tokyo Story (1953) - Ozu, Yasujiro

Ugetsu (1953) - Mizoguchi, Kenji

Jules et Jim (1961) - Truffaut, François

400 Blows, The (1959) - Truffaut, François

Fargo (1996) - Coen, Joel and Ethan Coen

Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948) - Huston, John

Amadeus (1984) - Forman, Milos

Intolerance (1916) - Griffith, D.W.

Apartment, The (1960) - Wilder, Billy

Jaws (1975) - Spielberg, Steven

On the Waterfront (1954) - Kazan, Elia

Birth of a Nation, The (1915) - Griffith, D.W.

Clockwork Orange, A (1971) - Kubrick, Stanley

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) - Leone, Sergio

Maltese Falcon, The (1941) - Huston, John

Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972) - Herzog, Werner

Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, The (1966) - Leone, Sergio

Contempt (1963) - Godard, Jean-Luc

Magnificent Ambersons, The (1942) - Welles, Orson

Conformist, The (1970) - Bertolucci, Bernardo

Annie Hall (1977) - Allen, Woody

Man With a Movie Camera, The (1928) - Vertov, Dziga

Greed (1924) - von Stroheim, Erich

Gone with the Wind (1939) - Fleming, Victor

Piano, The (1993) - Campion, Jane

Toy Story (1995) - Lasseter, John

Paths of Glory (1957) - Kubrick, Stanley

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001) - Jackson, Peter

Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957) - Lean, David

Ran (1985) - Kurosawa, Akira

Wild Bunch, The (1969) - Peckinpah, Sam

Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The (1972) - Buñuel, Luis

Sherlock Jr. (1924) - Keaton, Buster

Silence of the Lambs, The (1991) - Demme, Jonathan

Unforgiven (1992) - Eastwood, Clint

Lady Eve, The (1941) - Sturges, Preston

Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) - Bresson, Robert

It Happened One Night (1934) - Capra, Frank

Grapes of Wrath, The (1940) - Ford, John

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) - Mulligan, Robert

Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003) - Jackson, Peter

[hmmm... don't ask me why Google Blogger has decided to hide the leading 1's when I got to 1000+ - they are continually introducing odd bugs in to the blogs that bloggers have to debug or work around.. I'll look into this one and try to fix it. I tried shrinking the font size already with no difference. At least it's only affecting the bottom of this list. Thanks, guys - maybe with yer billions you can figure this out]

I was admittedly appalled to see Star Wars at No. 4 - that's what happens when you include popular polls I guess. I thought The Empire Strikes Back was much better science fiction. I would have thought Lord of the Rings films would be ranked ahead of the Star Wars films, just based on critics alone, but.. that's just my opinion.

I was also surprised to see Chinatown at No. 3, and that it's rising over time - good, but not that good. And is Blade Runner really 13th - does it belong in the top 20? Wizard of Oz 18th, with it's terrible acting and bad music? Pulp Fiction 20th - where are all these Tarantino fans coming from? Has no one seen Out of the Past lately? Instead of 237th it should be 37th.

Even Goldfinger made this list! That's not even the best Bond film. and the boring and mundane Kramer vs. Kramer, one of the worst best picture winners ever. Where the heck is Jerry Lewis, one wonders? Maybe I should add some French polls, lol..

With Inception now No. 9 at IMDB, look for it to show up next time I update this poll - likely sometime this summer.

Void where prohibited; your results may vary; not responsible for accidents; do not take while pregnant

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Introduction to World's Best Films

We will review (spoiler-free capsule reviews) and list the greatest films in history, wherever and whenever they were produced.

All films in Gold won Best Picture Oscars®. * is a new addition in a list.

Our Top Ranked 1000 Films, all polls, was compiled by taking all film polls we could find, throwing them into a spreadsheet, and gave numeric points in descending order. The result was over 2200 films listed in all, ranked by their relative positions in all the polls combined. This combination of both critics and fans polls should give film fans the most objective list of how films are perceived by the total film community, not just a small group of fans.

Relevant to said mission is the following query which I now put forth to you: wherein this most streamlined and trunkless of transports, boner-inspiring though it may be, wherein are we to reposit our most recently deceased cargo?” - Sin City

Go ahead, make my millenium! - Beetlejuice

I have nothing, I am a river to my people! - Lawrence of Arabia

Hey, senor, how much for the leetul girl? How much for the women? - The Blues Brothers

It's a girl and a midget, 'gidget', get it? - Gidget

I've worked in the private sector, they expect results. - Ghostbusters

Man, that's one big twinkie! - Ghostbusters

I put the grrr in swinger, baby! - Austin Powers

Badges? We don got to show you no stinkin badges! - The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Boredom's the first step on the road to relapse - Clerks II

I ain't 'people'! I am a.. 'a shimmering, glowing star in the cinema firmament' - Singin' in the RainIf we bring a little joy into your humdrum lives, it makes us feel as though our hard work ain't been in vain for nothin'. - Singin' in the Rain (both from Jean Hagen)

..More Quotes

I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore! - Network

Lend all men thine ear, but lend few your tongue - Hamlet

Neither a borrower nor a lender be. - Hamlet

Doubt the the stars are fire; doubt that the moon's above; doubt that the truth's a liar; but never doubt my love - Hamlet

I picked a helluva week to give up _____ - Airplane!

You can always pay half the poor to kill the other half. - Boss Tweed, Gangs of New York

The first rule of politics: the ballots don't make the election winner, the counters make the winner. - Boss Tweed, Gangs of New York

Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night - All About Eve

You can still dish it out, but you just can't take it anymore - Little Caesar